Have nothing to do with the [evil] things that people do, things that belong to the darkness. Instead, bring them out to the light... [For] when all things are brought out into the light, then their true nature is clearly revealed...

As communications technology has raced ahead of government attempts to tame it, in the name of law enforcement, the Obama administration, the FBI, the Department of Justice, the National Security Agency and other government agencieshave been meeting for months to come up with regulations that would allow broadening government powers to intercept, read, and analyze Internet messages, and then prosecute perceived violations of law. Arguments by proponents of further incursions into citizens’ privacy initially sound reasonable: new technology, and private citizens’ use of the Internet for private communications, have exceeded government’s ability to keep up, and consequently its ability to monitor, track and follow people is “going dark,” unless something is done.

The report from NewsNet5 in Wadsworth, Ohio, was scarcely considered news, rating only a few brief paragraphs: “A gun-carrying couple helped [police] catch a man who was allegedly beating his girlfriend in a parking lot in front of her two children…Police said the couple, who each have a permit to carry a concealed weapon, called 911 [and] then pulled out their guns and ordered the man to the ground.”

Heather Evans told the 911 dispatcher, “My husband and I both have CCW licenses and we were in fear for her life, and we drew our weapons on him.” The attacker, Anthony Konopinski, is now facing domestic violence, child endangerment, resisting arrest, and drug paraphernalia charges.

Today more than 100 preachers will be speaking out on political issues and candidates in direct contravention of the IRS. And then each preacher will send a recording of their sermon to the IRS, challenging them to enforce the law. For the third year in a row, the last Sunday in September has witnessed a growing number of churches and their preachers directly confronting the IRS and daring the agency to come after them.

Sponsored by the Alliance Defense Fund, the strategy is designed to invoke enforcement of the so-called Johnson Amendment adopted by the IRS in 1954.

The arrests followed charges filed by California’s Attorney GeneralJerry Brown last week in a civil complaint against the same individuals, accusing them of “wasting public funds, negligence, fraud, conflict of interest and breach of fiduciary duty.”

He added, “We want the government out. Period. We don’t want to be known as Government Motors…It’s a goal of this company to return that (federal money). [However] I don’t think that’s going to be [done] in one fell swoop. I think that’s unrealistic.”

This was a much different message from that delivered by his predecessor, GM CEO Ed Whitacre, back in March when he announced in a series of TV ads:

Last Tuesday, September 7, when Senate Majority LeaderHarry Reid (D-Nev.) said he intended to focus the current lame duck session on “mopping up” leftovers from the previous session, these included a national renewable energy policy, a small business jobs bill, and another stimulus bill. Reid said, “We are still going to be in Congress, working, after the election…There are things that we have to do. There is a lot of mopping up to do.” Reid failed to mention one small item that his lame duck session is determined to ignore altogether: the Bush “tax cuts” which are set to expire without Congressional action by the end of the year.